


Safe and Sound

by GlowingMechanicalHeart



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene, POV Pepper Potts, Pre-Relationship, Worried Pepper Potts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27497626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlowingMechanicalHeart/pseuds/GlowingMechanicalHeart
Summary: She feels off kilter, unsure for the first time in a very long time. She should go. She should go downstairs, let Tony know that she was going home (or the office) and leave. But, she finds that she doesn’t want to, he has just returned and it doesn’t take a genius to know that he has suffered. That thing in his chest speaks louder than anything Tony might say.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Safe and Sound

Pepper doesn’t know what to do now, Tony’s interview has thrown her for a loop. It was the farthest thing that she could’ve imagined. Now, they’re back at Tony’s Malibu house, he is tinkering downstairs and she’s dutifully fielding calls from everybody.

She feels off kilter, unsure for the first time in a very long time. She should go. She should go downstairs, let Tony know that she was going home (or the office) and leave. But, she finds that she doesn’t want to, he has just returned and it doesn’t take a genius to know that he has suffered. That thing in his chest speaks louder than anything Tony might say.

So, she camps in the living room. Takes her blackberry out and works some things that she can, once hunger calls, she orders Italian delivery, enough so that Tony might eat too and she orders extra, so that he might have another dish ready tomorrow. Yes, he’d eaten a burger, but that’s not enough. She knows that under any other circumstance, she’d go downstairs and tell him to eat. But now, with everything that he’d been under, she doesn’t have it in her to order him. 

A part of her wishes she could go there and hug him. She had cried when Rhodey told her that he’d been found, relief washing over her like a tidal wave. She wasn’t under any illusion that his kidnappers had been nice, why would they be? She didn’t know how he’d return home. She had cried again, when she had been told she and Happy were permitted to come and receive him once he touched down in American soil.

The joke had been a ‘return to form’, a way to reassure him (and herself), that all would be well. But now he’s thrown everything off kilter, now he’s home working as if nothing were wrong, as if he’d simply gone in a vacation and he’s now working again.

It worries her. And she wishes she had the right to walk down, sit next to him and comfort him, to hold him and listen to whatever horrors he’d lived through. But he’d never say them, perhaps he’ll speak to Rhodey, but not to her. She has no rights to his innermost pain and emotions, even if she wished she did.

Food arrives and she eats alone, she’s told Jarvis about the food, told him to pass the message to Tony. But Tony doesn’t come up, he keeps tinkering. She sighs, sits down at his table and eats her food in silence. Once that’s done, she keeps working. The calls never stop, she answers them as best she can, does her best to give Tony the space he needs right now.

It’s getting late when she’s finally made the decision to leave. Truth be told, she doesn’t want to. There’s a large part of herself that she wants to camp on a guest bedroom and just be there, even if he were to come in screaming, nightmares fresh in his mind, she wants to be there for him. But he’s still downstairs.

Much to her surprise, Tony comes up as she’s prepping to leave. He frowns when he sees her, “You stayed?” His tone is full of surprise, but it’s quiet, almost disbelieving.

“I did,” she tells him. “I wasn’t sure if you’d need something, and well, better be around if you did.”

I didn’t want you alone, I didn’t want to leave you. Those are the words she doesn’t say, but it seems that Tony can hear them clearly.

Tony feels something in his chest, it is as if he’s heart just skipped a beat. He blames the arc reactor and does his best to pretend everything’s normal. Then he looks outside, it’s late and night has already fallen, “It’s late, you shouldn’t drive.”

Stay, please, don’t leave me alone. Those are the words Tony can’t say, Stark men are made of iron. He endured captivity, he can live with being alone back at home with Jarvis.

She gives him a look, one that is full of questions. Tony’s eyes are open and honest, he doesn’t want her to go, but he can’t quite make himself to say the words. Her heart clenches, no matter what bravado he might have, no matter what mask he dons, he can’t quite erase the slight panic that bubbled at her announcement. “I don’t want to impose,” she finally says, giving him an out.

Tony shakes his head. “There’s an extra bedroom, you know where it is. I’ll lend you something for you to sleep in. So, Jarvis tells me you ordered Italian?”

A change of subject, a way to protect himself. She sighs, “Yes, there’s leftover risotto in your fridge. It’s for you, actually. And thank you, for the room and clothes.”

“You’re welcome miss Potts.”

She tries to smile at him, to show him that he is home and things will be normal again. Her smile is a little brittle, but it’s sincere. “You’re welcome mister Stark.”

Tony insists she eats more, and she does more out of duty than true hunger, the food she ate earlier wasn’t enough to sustain her, but her appetite is fluctuating, she’s sure it’s the stress and worry. So, she sits across from him and eats some of the risotto. Once dinner is ready, she half expects him to go back to his workshop, but he surprises her by saying he’s tired and wants to sleep. “I’d like to rest in a proper bed.”

It breaks her heart, of course he couldn’t have slept well in captivity, the flight home was in a military plain, not the comfort of the Stark Jet. “Call me if you need anything,” she says before she disappears to the room he’s letting her sleep in. She changes to the clothes he’s given her, brings the shirt to her nose and let’s Tony’s faint scent wash over her senses. She lays down on her left side, tentatively, she extends her right hand. “You’re home Tony,” she whispers, wishing he could hear her. “You’re safe, I’m here.”

In the master bedroom, Tony lays on his right side. His hand extended, watching the empty spot next to him. “Thank you for staying, Pepper.” 


End file.
